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As the prison sentence of Volkswagen engineer James Liang has shown, software architecture can have far-reaching legal and ethical consequences. And although few architects will ever be involved in ethical dilemmas of the magnitude Mr. Liang had to deal with, most of us will at some time or other be involved in architectural choices with ethical impact. As software becomes ubiquitous, its impact on privacy, transparency, equality, or general happiness and well-being of people is felt by everyone.

In this interactive tutorial, presenters Eltjo Poort and Michael Keeling will first explain why architects should care about ethics, and then hand them some tools to help navigate the quagmire of ethical dilemmas. Together, we will explore some stories—scenarios that any software architect can run into in their daily work. At the end of the workshop, we will discuss ways in which we can all become more ethical software architects.

Michael Keeling is a software engineer at IBM, where he helps build Watson and has worked in the software industry for more than a decade. He is author of the book Design It! From Programmer to Software Architect. Keeling has a master’s degree in software engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the College of William and Mary... Read More →

Eltjo Poort is distinguished solution architect at CGI in The Netherlands. In his 30-year career in the software industry, he has fulfilled many engineering and project management roles. In the 1990s, he oversaw the implementation of the first SMS text messaging systems in the United... Read More →